In 1519, during the early stages
of Hernán Cortés’ adventures in Mexico, the expedition fleet anchored at a port
called San Juan de Ulua. There, Cortés met with two Aztec leaders that the
Spanish thought were governors. For more than a week, they talked and exchanged
gifts (including a large treasure of gold from Montezuma II and a fine chair
from Cortés), until the Aztec leader, Montezuma, apparently ordered his people
to abruptly cut off contact with the conquistadors. Yet, although the Aztec
governors and their attendants quickly withdrew without notice, another group of
local natives covertly sent ambassadors to speak with the Spaniards. The
newly-arrived diplomats represented the Totonac people, a network of communities
that had been subjugated by the Aztecs but were eager to rebel.
The leading city of the
Totonac people was Zempoala (or Cempoala), in the vicinity of what would become
Vera Cruz, Mexico. The leader of the city sent a delegation of five men to meet
with Cortés in San Juan de Ulua. The diplomats, reportedly wearing golden
decorations on their ears and lips, made a good first impression on the
gold-obsessed Spaniards. Having obtained Cortés’ attention, the messengers
expressed their leader’s eagerness to work with the Spaniards against Montezuma,
and they invited the Spanish to visit the city of Zempoala. Cortés agreed to
visit, but maintained that he was in a hurry to reach a city called Quiahuitzlan,
which had piqued the interest of ships Cortés had earlier sent out to scout the
coast. The conquistadors were in luck, for Zempoala was on the route to
Quiahuitzlan and the leader of Zempoala knew the leader of the other city
well.
Bernal Díaz del Castillo was
among the conquistadors who saw Zempoala and he wrote this dramatic description
of the community:
“as we came among the houses
we saw how large a town it was, larger than any we had yet seen, and were full
of admiration. It was so green with vegetation that it looked like a garden;
and its streets were so full of men and women who had come out to see us that
we gave thanks to God for the discovery of such a country” (The Conquest of New Spain, chapter 45).
It was such a thriving
settlement that the Spaniards reportedly nicknamed it the City of Abundance. The
ambitious leader of Zempoala was a perfect figurehead for the city, as he, like
his large and well-fed city, was reported to have been incredibly obese. As the
aforementioned Bernal Díaz explained, “He was so fat that I must call him the
fat Cacique” (The Conquest of New Spain,
chapter 45). True to his word, that was the consistent name given to the leader
of Zempoala in the remainder of Bernal Díaz’s account.
The large leader of the city
allowed the Spaniards to stay in some well-maintained buildings in the city
courtyard. Cortés sent scouts to check out the lodgings. The wealth of the city
and the general lust for gold and silver must have affected one of the scouts,
for he rushed back to his comrades to tell them of a remarkable sight. According
to him, the walls of their quarters, and those of other buildings in the city,
were made of gleaming silver. Sadly, Bernal Díaz made no mention of how this
news was received among the conquistadors, but, thankfully for Cortés, his
culturally and architecturally aware translators were able stop the infectious
rumor from spreading. Doña Marina (Cortés’ translator and mistress) and Aguilar
(a priest formerly held captive by the Maya) explained that Zempoala was not a
city of silver, but instead had walls covered in bright plaster.
This is how Bernal Díaz
presented this amusing scene:
“Our mounted scouts had come
to a great square with courtyards where they had prepared our lodgings, which
appeared to have been lime-coated and burnished during the last few days. The
Indians are so skillful at these arts that one of the horsemen took the shining
whiteness for silver, and came galloping back to tell Cortés that our quarters
had silver walls. Doña Marina and Aguilar said that it must have been plaster,
and we laughed at his excitement. Indeed we reminded him ever afterwards that
anything white looked to him as silver” (The
Conquest of New Spain, chapter 45).
Cortes eventually left
Zempoala and traveled to the city of Quiahuitzlan. The so-called fat Cacique followed the conquistadors to
Quiahuitzlan, and there the two Totonac leaders continued to pressure Cortés to
aid them in rebellion against Montezuma. Hernán Cortés eventually agreed and
soon after founded the Spanish Colonial city of Vera Cruz not far from the
location of Quiahuitzlan.
Written by C. Keith Hansley.
Picture Attribution: (A city
scene from the Conquest of Mexico (Virreinato de la Nueva España), by Miguel
Gonzales c. 17th century, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).
- The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz, translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
- https://www.ancient.eu/Montezuma/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Montezuma-II
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mesoamerican-civilization/images-videos/media/376698/3170
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cortes_hernan.shtml
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hernan-Cortes
- https://www.biography.com/explorer/hernan-cortes
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2016/05-06/cortes-tenochtitlan/
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